"Everyone dies." I whispered, hot air slipping from between my lips as all the oxygen in my body seemed to disappear. I was going to die? Questions shot through my mind like rockets, exploding into smaller questions every time I came to a conclusion. How did this kid know I was going to die? How was it going to happen? Why was I even considering this as a possibility? There was no way he could tell the future. Sounded like something out of a bad movie.

"Yes. But you are going to be dead by monday." Jake spoke softly, his hands shaking as he clutched his hot cocoa like it was going to save his life. "I'm sorry Ms. B. I'm r-r-really sorry." His gaze was planted in his drink, the same kind of look a kid had when his parents weren't going to discipline him, but were instead only disappointed in him, plastered across his face.

"What makes you think I'm going to die?" I had to ask, my heart beating so loud it was sure to pop out of my chest any moment. "Because they told me." Jake spoke vaguely, obviously hoping I'd go no further. "Who told you." Even though he was only a kid he started it. I had to push on. "They did."

 I rolled my eyes in frusteration. "Jake. Who are they? What's their name?" I practically pled, the anticipation making my head ache. Sweaty hands caused the boy to let go of his mug, hot cocoa spilling across the floor along with shards of hardened clay. Jake leapt from his seat, dashing out of the house without another word. I followed him to the door but only saw the tip of his shoes as he turned the corner, gone with the wind.

 Apparently my interrogation skills weren't as good as I thought they were. 

 As the shadows of the evening crept upon my house, an ominous feeling began to fill me, my eyes planted on the flames that crackled within my fireplace. I only had two days to figure out what was going on and stop it or I could end up another corpse in the cemetary. The worst part was that because it was the weekend, I wouldn't be able to reach Jake without rousing some suspicion. What sort of teacher likes to pay visits to her students on the weekend? 

A sigh escaped me, sleep slowly drowning out the thoughts of death and Jake and everything that had happened in one eventful day. 

By the time I woke up, the sun was just beginning to stretch over the horizon, a few clouds dotting the sky while the stars lingered in the morning sky. A pleasant breeze caressed my skin through the crack of a window seal, my eyes blinking softly in response. 

I dressed myself in tight blue jeans, classic red sneakers with the white tips, a red t-shirt that said "Eat me" and a grey jacket. The first step from the door reminded me of better days, of sitting on the porch as a child with my mother, drinking lemonade and watching the clouds pass by. Of playing hopscotch with my friends and laughing whenever I fell. Of the feeling of my baby girl cradled in my arms and the soft lips of Jack. 

A tear threatened to make a run for it, but I resisted. No more crying. Shaking memories long gone from my mind, I hoped into my small yellow buggy, taking a trip to Jake's home, and arriving within fifteen minutes. It was a small town after all.

 Their home was modest to say the least. From outside it looked like it was comprised of only one room. Red shutters flanking small dirty windows were the most attractive part of the house, wooden boards struggling to hold on and maintain walls for the small family.

 Strolling through their lawn was like walking through a jungle, weeds everywhere and the occasional pile of dog crap. I knocked on the olive colored door, the door bell a broken mess to it's side. Within moments the door was flying open and a woman was screaming in my ear.

 "Jake?!" When she realized I wasn't Jake she reverted to crying, something I knew she had been doing for quite some time considering her cheeks were wet with tears. She turned away, walking into the shadows of her house before her husband walked into view, his face grim and covered with hair from a lack of shaving. It was apparent the two of them were in terrible shape. 

 "I'm sorry ma'am. We're having a hard time." The man sighed, a hand reaching up to his untidy grey hair. "Whats the problem?" I ask curiously. "If I may ask." I add in hurridly. After all, some people don't like to feel like they are being intruded upon.

 "It's... It's.." The man was obviously having a hard time speaking his problem. "It's just that... our son is gone." A hand instantly slapped against my forehead. Why hadn't I gone after the kid? He ran away? Was this my fault? "Since when?" I tried to ask without any guilt in my voice but failed pretty miserably. "Since about a week ago." I knew that if I looked in a mirror I would see my eyes as wide as saucers.

 "I'm... I'm... I'm sorry to have bothered you sir. I hope you find your son." I practically ran for it, jumping into my car and driving off towards the other side of town in a frenzy. How had this happened? The kid had run away from home, but then had decided to get some hot chocolate with me? Could it really be true? Dead on monday?

 My first stop was at the local bar, a shoddy place that looked like a larger version of Jake's house with alot more alcohol. A neon sign on the side of the window said, "Too Tall Timmy's." It was a dumb name, but all I wanted right now was to get drunk.

As soon as I walked in I could feel the eyes of drunk men all over me, a sickening feeling that I assumed must be something like what it feels like to get raped, with the exception of having that feeling all of the time. With a seat at the counter and a beer in my hands all those thoughts disappeared. 

One after another went down smooth, its liquid normally burning, but suddenly refreshing, as though I had just gotten my first meal in months. The funny thing was, the more I drank, the more drowsy I felt. "Heeeelllllloooooo." A voice slurred to my right. I turned to see what amounted to a six foot five man covered in a large black cloak. "Drrrrriiiinnnnkkkk uuupppppp." He slurred once more, the shadow of the cloak making him invisible. 

 I turned back to my latest drink to find it empty, and at the bottom rested a strange white powder. The last thing I remembered was my head hitting the counter.

It seemed like an eternity of sleep before I woke up. Groans were followed by screams as I found myself bound and blindfolded. Within moments those screams stopped, mostly because I was too busy spitting one of my teeth out after getting smashed in the face with something rather heavy. Tears soaked the blindfold to my eyes, my body struggling against the might of metal bonds.

The only thing I could tell from feeling (besides the blood filling my mouth of course) was that I was pinned against a wall or a table by chain of some sort across my wrists and ankles. The other thing I could tell was that I was completely naked, by the soft breeze that was coming from above.

"Hello." A voice spoke without the distinct slur that I had heard before passing out. It must have been from being drunk. "Please! Please let me go." I pled, even though deep down I knew it was going to be worthless. "Shut up. You know as well as I do that you are going to die down here." The voice was deep and powerful, frightening to the very core. It sent shivers down my spine cold enough to chill a polar bear.

 "Please. I've done nothing wrong! I'm just a teacher!" I pled once more. There was nothing else I could do. "I'm just a teacher!" He mocked, laughter following soon afterwards. "Just a teacher eh? Well I'm sorry Ms. Teacher. But you walked into the wrong bar. If I were you, I'd start getting myself ready to die. If you have anything you want to scream out or say to yourself before you go, say it. You've got five minutes."

Somehow I could hear the heavy footsteps of the man as he left the room through the pounding of my heart and the heavy breathing that resulted from fear. I couldn't believe this was it, that I was really going to go like this. It seemed like yesterday that I was holding my baby girl. "I'm sorry." I cried softly, words coming out in chokes and sobs. "I'm so sorry I left you Claire." It was like being slowly stabbed to death and brought back just before dying just to be stabbed once more "I didn't mean to let go Jack." My blind fold began to slip due to the weight of my tears. Slowly it inched down my nose until I could just barely see the room I was in.

Instantly I recognized it as the old county cave on the other side of town. It was supposedly haunted, and now I knew why. Because there was a killer in it. 

"Hey!" A voice blasted. A man came running from the shadows, a knife in one hand and a saw in another. He had a table laid out in front of me filled with all sorts of surgical equipment from needles to scapels."You're not supposed to see anything!" He screamed in a high pitched voice, tightening the blind fold over my eyes so that darkness covered me once more.

 "Five minutes up baby. I'm going to enjoy this." He whispered. "Wait. Wait! Can I just ask you one question? Please?" I cried, fighting my bonds. "Shut up!" He screamed once more, his voice so high he sounded like a girl. "Please! Please! Please! I beg you just one question!" I heard him sigh. "Alright go ahead. But after that it's cuttin time." He snickered, clanging his instruments of death together.

 "What day is it?" Was this it? Was this going to be my end? "It's saturday night." No. Suddenly the chains holding me clattered to the ground, my blindfold slipping to my neck. The look of surprise on his face was priceless, especially as I swung what had previously been holding me down and smashed it into the man's face. It put him down in the blink of an eye.

 I rose to my feet, staring at the man as he lay unmoving. He could be no older than twenty one with short blond fuzzy hair and side burns. He was almost handsome, that was until just recently. I watched as a pool of blood began to form under him before turning him over to reveal he had accidently stabbed himself in the back of the neck with one of his own tools.

Sighing softly I grabbed a trenchcoat off a makeshift coat hanger, wrapping my naked body tightly against the elements. As I walked through the cave I noticed several skeletons chained to the wall like prisoners in a medieval castle.

 How long had this man been doing this to people? My thoughts wandered as I sighted a door somehow fitted to the cave. My curiousity surged, ideas of what could be behind it filling my mind. What if it was somebody who was still alive, hoping that somebody would save them? I couldn't leave them there.

And so I opened it. That familiar sensation of all the oxygen leaving my body hit me once more. My lungs burned like they had acid in them, my mind screaming louder and louder with every passing moment. 

 On a wall smeared in blood it said. "I died on wednesday Ms. B. I died on Wednesday." And under that message lay Jake.